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April 09, 2007
Workhorse PC (updated)
There are times when Bleeding Edge hesitates to fulfill our duties as a consumer, holding up the particular bit of the economy allocated to us by the common wealth. What with the Bleeding Edge spouse being unable to distinguish this civic responsibility from the actions of “a gadget-obsessed spendthrift”, it’s a heavy burden.
At times like this, we seek the shelter of Moore’s Law. Its essence - that computing power per unit cost doubles every 18 months – means that any expenditure on IT is a demonstrable bargain, provided one assesses it via the rear view mirror. This approach has been indispensable in avoiding terminal atrophy of the spending reflex.
Take, for instance, the workhorse PC. Six years ago, when we first began the exercise of specifying the components for that now legendary machine, our challenge was to provide a friend with an alternative to a $4499 branded PC that, had it suddenly popped up on the credit card statement, would almost certainly have given his spouse a minor stroke or heart attack.
We assembled a superior system which included what at the time were a high-end processor, respectable RAM, sound card and graphics card, 17-inch CRT monitor, DVD player, CD-RW burner, and hard drive, for a total of $2625.
It made it so much easier for our friend to enjoy the bliss of a powerful, trouble-free PC, without nuptial stress and injury, and we decided to share the experience with readers. Since then, thousands of readers have used the quarterly specifications to ease their guilt, and calm their spouses. While we have not yet received an Order of Australia for services to health, marital peace and the economy, we’re sure one must be in the pipeline.
What with the state of the share market affecting the nerve of fellow supporters of the economy, we thought it was time to take a stroll through recent history with Moore’s Law, going back six years, when we began the exercise.
We based that first workhorse PC on the AMD Athlon Thunderbird CPU. It was a mere 900Mhz model, with a system bus of 266Mhz. It cost $400. The mainstream CPU at the time was Intel’s Pentium III, which, depending on the speed, cost from $325 to $625. The cheapest Pentium 4 at the time was $1090, well beyond our price range.
The Intel Core 2 Duo CPU that powers today’s workhorse PC is considerably cheaper than the 1Ghz Athlon, and roughly one quarter the price of the Pentium 4. With two processors working at 1.86GHz on a system bus of 1066MHz, equipped with eight times the onboard L2 cache, it is vastly more powerful. It also uses much less power.
Our first workhorse PC had just 128MB of RAM, which cost $120 – a good deal more than the $85 you’d pay for the 1GB of much faster RAM which powers today’s workhorse machine. Back in 2001, the hard drive stored 30GB, which at $310, represented around $10 per GB – more than 10 times the cost per GB of today’s 320GB drive.
For $1290 - roughly half the price of the 2001 model - what you’re getting in today’s workhorse PC, is, by comparison, a supercomputer.
We’re sticking with the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 motherboard from last December, but it’s $17 cheaper at $148. For a little more, however, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 is an outstanding purchase. If you’re particularly flush with funds, the Asus P5B DeLuxe is worth the additional investment.
The price of the Intel Core 2 Duo 6300, which is our base-level recommendation, has gone up slightly to $258. Fortunately 1GB generic DDR2 RAM has dropped to $69, from $136. If you’re going to run Windows Vista, or you regularly use programs like Adobe PhotoShop or do any serious multi-tasking, you’ll need 2GB of memory, and now is a great time to buy it.
Graphics card prices may be due for a shakeup with the possible entry into the local market of Foxconn, which aside from producing some very good motherboards, manufactures the popular Leadtek range. Foxconn will have to buy market share from the established brands, and with the situation expected to be resolved in the next few weeks, it might be worth holding off for a month or so.
In that area, we’ve moved to the Nvidia 7300GT graphics chip as the base, because of its widescreen capability. It will cost you $106. If you’re a games player, you won’t be satisfied with anything less than the 7900GS chip, which will cost you around $165. Depending on its price and availability, Foxconn’s FV-N79SMD2-OC might be a bargain at that level.
We’ve chosen the same hard drive in the 16MB cache, SATA II version of the 320GB Seagate.
The big move in DVD writers comes with the arrival of the Asus SATA model, which has a faster transmission rate than the IDE version. In addition to being able to write at 18x, the Asus version includes LightScribe technology which allows you to flip the CD or DVD over and burn a label.
The ThermalTake Soprano VX case is still a sound choice at $127, and the 19-inch BenQ 91G+ LCD monitor is a good entry point, at $293. With $70 for assembly, it’s an absolute steal, compared to 2001. Your spouse should be thoroughly grateful for your restraint.
Components:
CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6300 $258
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 $148
RAM: 1GB Generic $69
Video card: Gigabyte 7300GT (256MB) $106
Hard drive: Seagate 320GB SATA II 16MB $121
Monitor: BenQ FP91G $293
DVD burner: Asus SATA $65
Keybd/mouse : Microsoft 500 $33
Case: ThermalTake Soprano VX $127
Assembly: $70
Total: $1290
Posted by cw at April 9, 2007 09:53 PM
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